Published: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 11:56 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 at 11:56 p.m.

BARTOW | Polk Transit Director Tom Phillips on Wednesday unveiled the latest improvement designed to cut costs and to win over the public for more system improvements.

The brief presentation at the beginning of a Polk Transit Authority meeting showcased a new 15-foot bus that will replace the 40-foot bus that had been serving the Bradley area south of Mulberry.

The move to smaller buses — new buses for more heavily used routes are 30-foot models — reverses a 30-year policy by Phillips' predecessors to stick with larger buses.

"I've publicly criticized that," he said, explaining the new 30-foot buses cost $86,000 less than the 40-foot models without sacrificing service to riders.

Phillips said he envisions using 15-foot-long buses to serve other small communities around Polk County as part of the countywide "My Ride" initiative to improve transit service outside of the Lakeland-Winter Haven area.

Meanwhile, the initiative to work out agreements with local colleges and some employers to offer bus service to students and employees is showing great progress.

During a presentation at Wednesday's meeting, county spokesman Dave Walters said the new Legoland route along Cypress Gardens Boulevard has grown from 54 trips per month to 534 trips per month and the Polk State College agreement has grown in the past year from 2,400 trips per month to 8,157 trips per month.

The latest agreement with Everest University is scheduled to be observed Thursday.

Phillips said although agreements with colleges have been around since 1979, the idea of offering the same kind of deals to private companies such as Merlin Entertainments, Legoland's corporate owner, are rare nationwide and brought Polk County Transit into the spotlight in a recent article in a national transit magazine.

"We were the first in the country to have an agreement with a Fortune 500 company," he said. "Interest is growing nationally."

Phillips said he plans to have meetings with the Lakeland Economic Development Council and the Central Florida Development Council to explain the advantages and to gather support.

He said he's also considering talks with Sun N' Fun Fly-in to offer transit service for that popular annual event.

Another upcoming initiative will involve regular bus service to Tampa International Airport and to the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa.

Phillips told transit board members he has had preliminary discussions with representatives from Tindale-Oliver & Associates, a consulting firm, about strategies for attempting to put a referendum on the 2014 ballot to ask Polk County voters to approve a transit tax to create a countywide transit system. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea in 2010.

He said he plans to start doing some polling after the November elections to gauge the public perception on transit and whether news of any of the improvements he's making are reaching them.

Phillips said after the meeting that he will not pursue a referendum if it's clear from polling that there's little public support.

The ultimate decision on whether to hold a referendum will be up to the County Commission.

During recent campaign forums, County Commission candidates have said they doubted another referendum had a chance without major changes that will give the public confidence that the system was being run efficiently.

The County Commission has until June 2014 to decide on whether to pursue another referrendum, Phillips said.

[ Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com or 863-802-7535. Read his blog on county government at county.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter @LedgerTom. ]

<p>BARTOW | Polk Transit Director Tom Phillips on Wednesday unveiled the latest improvement designed to cut costs and to win over the public for more system improvements.</p><p>The brief presentation at the beginning of a Polk Transit Authority meeting showcased a new 15-foot bus that will replace the 40-foot bus that had been serving the Bradley area south of Mulberry.</p><p>The move to smaller buses — new buses for more heavily used routes are 30-foot models — reverses a 30-year policy by Phillips' predecessors to stick with larger buses.</p><p>"I've publicly criticized that," he said, explaining the new 30-foot buses cost $86,000 less than the 40-foot models without sacrificing service to riders.</p><p>Phillips said he envisions using 15-foot-long buses to serve other small communities around Polk County as part of the countywide "My Ride" initiative to improve transit service outside of the Lakeland-Winter Haven area.</p><p>Meanwhile, the initiative to work out agreements with local colleges and some employers to offer bus service to students and employees is showing great progress.</p><p>During a presentation at Wednesday's meeting, county spokesman Dave Walters said the new Legoland route along Cypress Gardens Boulevard has grown from 54 trips per month to 534 trips per month and the Polk State College agreement has grown in the past year from 2,400 trips per month to 8,157 trips per month.</p><p>"We've got some routes where there's standing-room only sometimes," Phillips said.</p><p>The latest agreement with Everest University is scheduled to be observed Thursday.</p><p>Phillips said although agreements with colleges have been around since 1979, the idea of offering the same kind of deals to private companies such as Merlin Entertainments, Legoland's corporate owner, are rare nationwide and brought Polk County Transit into the spotlight in a recent article in a national transit magazine.</p><p>"We were the first in the country to have an agreement with a Fortune 500 company," he said. "Interest is growing nationally."</p><p>Phillips said he plans to have meetings with the Lakeland Economic Development Council and the Central Florida Development Council to explain the advantages and to gather support.</p><p>He said he's also considering talks with Sun N' Fun Fly-in to offer transit service for that popular annual event.</p><p>Another upcoming initiative will involve regular bus service to Tampa International Airport and to the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa.</p><p>Phillips told transit board members he has had preliminary discussions with representatives from Tindale-Oliver & Associates, a consulting firm, about strategies for attempting to put a referendum on the 2014 ballot to ask Polk County voters to approve a transit tax to create a countywide transit system. Voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea in 2010.</p><p>He said he plans to start doing some polling after the November elections to gauge the public perception on transit and whether news of any of the improvements he's making are reaching them.</p><p>Phillips said after the meeting that he will not pursue a referendum if it's clear from polling that there's little public support.</p><p>The ultimate decision on whether to hold a referendum will be up to the County Commission.</p><p>During recent campaign forums, County Commission candidates have said they doubted another referendum had a chance without major changes that will give the public confidence that the system was being run efficiently.</p><p>The County Commission has until June 2014 to decide on whether to pursue another referrendum, Phillips said.</p><p> </p><p>[ Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com or 863-802-7535. Read his blog on county government at county.blogs.theledger.com. Follow on Twitter @LedgerTom. ]</p>